How To Create A Linkedin Profile: Expert Tips & Examples

Note, a small minority of recruiters felt there could be some upside to mentioning your former organization in the headline. As President of PDCA Social, Neal delivers practical, results-driven guidance to organizations navigating the digital-first economy. He teaches digital marketing to executives at leading institutions including Rutgers Business School and UCLA Extension.

In other words, it’s like a business card or personal website but with a social media twist. LinkedIn calls the profile a “professional landing page” because it’s supposed to be the first impression people have of you on the platform. Often, this is the “actual” first impression because LinkedIn introduces a lot of people who’ve never met in person. Your LinkedIn profile is more than just a digital resume – it’s your professional story, your networking hub, and often your first impression in the business world. Whether you’re job hunting, building your business, or expanding your professional connections, a well-crafted LinkedIn profile can open doors you didn’t even know existed. Skills have become the new currency in today’s job market, and LinkedIn data shows they’re a crucial factor in getting hired.

These articles begin as AI-powered conversation starters, developed with our editorial team, but they aren’t complete without insights from our members. Creator mode is a profile setting that can help you grow your reach and influence on LinkedIn. You can turn on creator mode to get access to additional tools and features that help you create content and grow your audience base on LinkedIn. Regular activity keeps your profile visible in your network’s feed. Your education section should include your academic achievements, including degrees, certifications, and relevant coursework. Provide details on your education, such as the name of the institution and the year you graduated.

It comes down to what perception you would want people to have. With a good Linkedin profile, you can showcase your story, your background, your company and how you’re trying to make a difference. Whether you are looking for a job, generating leads or just looking to learn from peers, Linkedin is an excellent ecosystem for all professional and career goals. I’ve been a LinkedIn user for years and know from experience that LinkedIn likes and promotes “complete” profiles.

Simply posting a job and waiting for applications is a passive approach. Actively engage with potential candidates to increase your chances of finding the right fit. LinkedIn’s Job Alerts feature ensures that you get immediate notifications about new job postings that match your preferences. This can give you a head start, allowing you to apply early and increase your chances of getting noticed by recruiters. This can be displayed on your profile picture for all to see, or you can choose to only show this to recruiters. With a multitude of features specifically Soltaros OÜ designed to help you connect with potential employers and discover new opportunities, knowing how to effectively utilize the platform is paramount.

It’s also worth keeping your location up to date to help connections and recruiters find you easily. It’s also a good idea to stay connected once your profile is up and running. Stop by for at least 15 minutes a week to see what you’ve missed, make comments on relevant stories, and answer any messages. So if you have articles, whitepapers, case studies, designs, and other similar content, show them off so that your audience sees exactly what you can do.

• If you currently have any relevant openings, I’ll be happy to discuss this further.
• If your profile meets those criteria, you’ll hit All Star status and significantly improve your visibility on the platform.
• LinkedIn Service Pages are dedicated landing pages that showcase your services and businesses at no cost and operate on a request and proposal model.

There are a lot of career “gurus” on the internet slinging LinkedIn profile tips with absolutely no qualifications or evidence to back them up. Once you’re done with this foundational setup, then I recommend you progress to reviewing Linkedin’s top hashtags that you can use on your post and profiles. Don’t be afraid to give away your best ideas and content for free. That is the most effective way to build leads, connections, and credibility.

Marketing Against The Grain

Feel free to add recruiters, HR specialists, and hiring managers in companies you want to work for to your network. This lets you stand apart from other potential candidates, and makes it more likely for the recruiters to notice you. When filling in your different LinkedIn profile sections, always take a second to stop and think “is what I’m writing relevant to the job I want to get”. For some reason, some people on LinkedIn use the third person when writing about themselves on their profiles. And we’re not talking famous people, who have a page and someone wrote it for them, we’re talking regular people with regular jobs.

He also suggests managers get recommendations from direct reports who can speak to their leadership abilities. “If a candidate has sufficient, relevant recent recommendations, it may even decrease due diligence time and the need for multiple reference checks,” says Waudby. The Experience section should mirror the candidate’s resume, highlighting their skills and experience in as much detail as possible says Mallory. If the recruiter can’t easily see what they’re looking for, they might move on to other candidates,” says Mallory.

In 2025, LinkedIn isn’t optional.It’s your digital handshake.The first thing recruiters see.The place where mentors decide if you’re worth helping. Yet so many job seekers still treat LinkedIn like an afterthought.They set it up once.Leave it blank.And wonder why they’re not getting noticed. Keep mixing up your content by using videos, polls, and articles along with your regular posts. Creator Mode relies on posts heavily when compared to articles, documents, or videos. Hence, make sure to use 3-5 relevant hashtags to help LinkedIn’s algorithm categorize your posts. The key is to post regularly, be it articles, insights, or even simple updates.

Attach Relevant Media To Your Experiences

When recruiters search on LinkedIn, one of the pieces of information the platform uses to return results is your current position—and if you don’t have one, you might not appear, Hallow says. LinkedIn Skills Assessments are another easy way for jobseekers to stand out. If your work involves the use of highly technical programs or software, these skills assessments are perfect for your job search. When completed, LinkedIn adds a badge to your profile page, signaling to recruiters and hiring managers that you’re proficient in these skills. Your digital persona is part of your personal and professional brand.

Don’t be afraid to invest some time, try a few drafts, and run your summary past people you know. This is your most personal piece of content marketing – and it’s worth the effort. John’s profile photo is a professional headshot that exudes confidence and approachability. His professional headline showcases his expertise and includes a unique selling point („Digital Marketing Leader”). His summary highlights his passion for marketing and his successful track record. His experience section includes specific achievements and quantifies his results.

You can locate this data by navigating to the section titled ‘Analytics’ on your logged-in profile. In this article, we’ll offer tips for leveraging your LinkedIn profile as a professional branding tool that tells your unique career story. Afterward, if you’d like guidance toward your goals, consider enrolling in the University of Pennsylvania’s Achieving Personal and Professional Success Specialization. Maintaining an active LinkedIn profile will allow you to find new job opportunities, network with like-minded professionals, and position yourself as an industry thought leader.

Stuff like, “awesome tips,” “love this advice,” “thanks for sharing,” etc. While those are all great, they’re probably not going to make their way to the top. If you’ve never thought about creating content on LinkedIn, getting started can feel overwhelming but it’s actually much easier than you think. Earlier in this post I shared a screenshot of my LinkedIn profile views, which came in around 14,500 for the past 90 days. If you build this into your professional routine, you’ll rack up recommendations in no time. Caution – Templates are great when tweaked for personalization and used in moderation.

By now, if you’re not his target audience, you’ll probably leave. In the middle section, he goes on to share the process of how he helps his clients achieve ROI. Not everyone will read through the entire summary, but they already know how to contact him. There are a couple of examples and structures that make a good summary. That said, if you want to appear in the search results, your work description is more important (which we’ll cover in a while). You can use this headline by starting with “I help (Audience) to do (Achievement)”.

Take the picture below of Kaitlin Milliken, program manager & content editor at HubSpot, as an example. Her picture is high-quality, professional, and appears to be a recent headshot. A complete guide to optimizing your LinkedIn profile, creating top-tier content, and implementing networking strategies. Offering recommendations in return can help build goodwill and strengthen professional relationships, creating a mutually beneficial exchange. Discover other guides from our vast content that could be of interest on LinkedIn and business AI.

Build Meaningful Relationships

If you’ve completed courses on Coursera, you’ll be able to add your certificates to this section. I’ll bet you’ve seen those posts from people in your industry with a couple hundred likes and comments. Those posts are racking up tens of thousands of views which means any comments left on them are getting in front of those eyeballs too. If you’re only relying on searches and keywords, your presence is going to be limited and the competition is high. There are a finite number of slots on the first page of search results and the chances that your profile shows up as #1 vs. the 250 million other active users is low.

I.e. post professional content you enjoy, as well as engage with other people’s posts. Having the right headline ensures you get found by recruiters for the right, relevant job, since a lot of them only search by title. Tout your skills throughout your profile—not just in the “Skills & endorsements” section.

This section is even more important if you want to make your next career move. With buzzwords, your best bet is to cut them and get specific about your accomplishments both in your headline and about sections. Proven track record, disruptive, innovative, leader, creative, and strategic are a few examples of buzzwords. These words do not offer any real insights into your accomplishments or professional connections.

Don’t let your most marketable skill get buried in your “Skills & endorsements” section. LinkedIn offers a feature-rich job posting platform where you can list open positions. A strong professional brand demonstrates expertise and builds trust with your audience. This applies to both employees and job seekers — social engineering threats and job scams are sadly far too common on LinkedIn these days.